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Session Server Management

For delivering applications or shared hosted desktops to end-users, session host servers (Linux/ Windows), should be added into HyWorks and then appropriate applications or shared hosted desktops should be published for end-users. Section VDI > Session Servers > Servers lists all session host server configured in HyWorks and provides management options.

Session Host Server Categorization

Session host servers can be kepts in following two categories in HyWorks:

  1. Managed Session Host Servers: Session host servers which are deployed via desktop pools in HyWorks are kept in managed session host categories. Many configurations of such deployed session servers are done by HyWorks based on pool configurations.

  2. Unmanaged Session Host Servers: Session host servers which are added manually are kept in Unmanaged category. Configurations have to be done for these servers while adding or updating in HyWorks.

Preparing Servers for Application and Shared Hosted Desktop Delivery

  • Windows Session Host Server Preparation:

    1. Install supported Windows server as virtual machine or on physical hardware

    2. Configure machine into domain or workgroup as per your requirement

    3. Install HyWorks Session Host module .

  • Linux Session Host Server Preparation:

    • Install supported Linux flavors as virtual machine or on physical hardware.

    • Install latest Assistive packages and Linux DVM Tools

    • Configure machine for LDAP, Microsoft Active Directory or Workgroup authentication

    • Linux shared session host server is ready for application and shared hosted desktop delivery

Note

Refer relevant installation and configuration guide for Linux and Windows servers for detailed information.

Adding Shared Session Host

Shared session host category refers to Microsoft Windows servers running Accops HyWorks Session Host or Linux with Accops online assistive package and DVM tools module.

Pre-requisites

  1. Windows Server: Supported platform OR Linux Server : Supported platform is up and running

  2. Accops HyWorks Session Host Server (Session Host Agent and Monitoring Service is running)

  3. Appropriate ports are configured to enable communication between session host and controller servers.

Add Shared Session Host

Follow the below steps to add Microsoft Windows or Linux server with as shared session host:

  1. Go to VDI > Session Servers > Servers.

  2. Click Add

  3. General Configurations:

    1. Select Type as

      1. Microsoft RDS Server for Windows Session Host Servers

      2. Linux RDS Server for Linux shared hosted desktops

    2. Provide name in Name field

    3. In Host Address, provide host address or IP address

      Important

      • If providing host address, then make sure it is being resolved correctly from Controller and client as the same host address will be used to connect to session server from client.

      • Controller uses configured address for providing connection details to endpoints and thus if hostname is configured, it must be resolvable from endpoints as well.

      • With HySecure being used appropriate host entries should also be made on HySecure Host Configurations

      • Avoid using localhost as the hostname as it will not get resolved while accessing Apps/Desktops.

    4. RDP Port: Session host server port on which it will accept the remote connection. Default value is 3389 but can be modified as per server configurations.

      Note

      RDP Port configuration is not available in older v.3.0 release and thus HyWorks Session Host Servers can only communicate on default RDP Port (3389)

    5. Session Team Select session team for session host server. Refer section Session Host Server Teaming and Load Balancing.

      1. Linux Session teams should be chosen for Linux shared session hosts and Windows session teams should be chosen for Windows shared session hosts

      2. By default, a Linux and a Windows session team exists in system which cannot be deleted.

    6. Based on team selection, following things will happen

      1. Weight: Weight is required for Weighted Least Connection or Weighted Round Robin load balancing, which means if selected team is using either type of load balancing then Weight field will be enabled, if it's using Adaptive load balancing then Weight field will not get enabled.

      2. Session Host Services' Status Check: On Selection of team, controller attempts to connect to Session Host and Monitoring service

      Important

      Administrator will be able to add session host servers even when its showing error for Session Host Service or Monitoring Service or Both, but Application or Shared Hosted Desktops will not be delivered until these services are running.

    7. Max Session: Specify maximum number of sessions allowed from the server. HyWorks will stop giving sessions from this session host,once it has number of sessions equal to Max Session.

    8. Select Active to make session provider as active. Inactive session providers are not considered while providing sessions.

    9. Do not select other options i.e. Enabled Diagnostics, until it required and recommended by Accops team. Refer Advance Shared Session Host Configurations.

    10. Enable Remote Control: Select this option, if session shadow is to be used for supporting end-user's sessions. If enabled, for every shared hosted desktop or application session, remote control icon will be displayed in VDI Sessions/ App Sessions screen.

    11. Assign Applications: Select this option to get list of published applications and associate this session host with published applications. HyWorks will consider this server for delivering those applications.

    12. Once all required options are configured, click on Test Connection button to check the availability of session host server on configured RDP port.

  4. Once connection is successful, success message will be displayed and clicking on Add button will add the session host server

Administrator will be able to see configured session host server in Session Providers screen with appropriate status.

Deploying Shared Session Host (Managed Session Host Server)

HyWorks having facility to provision Session Host Server. This is automatic deployment of Servers, which is having same configuration for all Servers. The server team and associated servers are managed (Add/Delete) by HyWorks Controller.

Preparation of Source VM(Session Host Server)

  1. Install supported Windows/Linux server as virtual machine.

  2. Install all pre-requisites for session host agent installation.

  3. Install HyWorks session host module: Windows/Linux Source VM is ready for provisioning.

For Session Host Server provisioning, check Session Host Pool Deployment.

Advance Shared Session Host Configurations

Though not tagged as advance configurations, following Shared Session Host specific configurations can be kept in advance category. These options are available for Microsoft RDS Server type shared session hosts.

  1. Enable Remote Control (Windows Only) : Select this option, if session shadowing to be used for user desktop or application sessions from this server. After enabling this option, administrator will be able to take session shadow of user's application and shared desktop sessions.

  2. Enable Diagnostics: An advanced configuration for enabling advanced diagnostics of session host server, to be kept unchecked until affirmed by Accops Support team during.

3. **Enable Virtual IP:** This option can be used to provide virtual IPs to either RDS sessions or any remote applications being published in HyWorks. ![](./media/image10.png) 3. Following configurations should be done while enabling virtual IP on session host server 1. **Interface**: Listing available network adapters on the session host server, one of the network adapters to be selected. 2. **IP Virtualization Type:** Read-only with default option as RDS 3. **IP Type:** Currently only IPv4 is supported and thus the field is disabled, and default option is IPv4. 4. **IP Virtualization Mode:** Can be selected as per session or per program 1. **Per Session:** Each RDS session will be assigned one virtual IP. All application sessions under single RDS session will be assigned same virtual IP. For Per Session IP Virtualization mode, specific Virtualization profile is not needed. 2. **Per Program:** Per program IP virtualization mode, assigns virtual IP to specific program (Application) in RDS session. **Per Program Virtualization** mode, requires application to be assigned with specific Virtualization Profile with **Virtualization** enabled. !!! note - Not specifying Virtualization profile in Application or specifying virtualization profile with **Virtualization** as **disabled** will not assign Virtual IP to remote application. - Virtualization Profile can be assigned while adding or editing application in **Additional Settings** tab. 5. **Use Specific Range:** Selecting this option enables administrator to specify the network range, from which virtual IPs will be assigned. Enabling this option will require following fields to be filled with appropriate details: 1. **Start IP Address:** First IP Address 2. **End IP Address:** Last IP Address 3. **Subnet Mask:** Appropriate Subnet mask Administrator can enable these two configurations as well in addition to all important configurations while adding session host servers, -->

Once configured successfully, added session host server can be used to deliver shared virtual desktop or applications to end users.

Deleting a Shared Session Host Server

  1. Select session provider to be deleted and click on Delete button

  2. Confirm Action dialog will be displayed stating all the consequences of deleting session provider.

  3. Confirm the operation by clicking on Delete button on the confirmation dialog

Session provider will be deleted from HyWorks configuration with following impact.

Impact of Deleting Session Host Server

When a shared session host is deleted from HyWorks Controller:

  1. The provider will be removed from all HyWorks configurations

    1. Session providers: Management of deleted provider will not be possible.

    2. Session teams: Deleted server will no longer be part of session teams and hence it will not participate in session load balancing.

    3. Applications/Shared hosted desktop pools: Application sessions from the server will not be given from deleted server.

Update Shared Session Host Configurations

Editable Fields and Impact of changes

While modifying shared session host configurations, following configurations can be changed:

For Unmanaged or Manually Added Session Host Servers

  • Name: Changes in name will not affect any services. It is not critical to any delivery aspects.

  • Host Address: Critical field and should be updated only when the same server has been migrated to different IP or host address as using this information only HyWorks Controller fetches the information of Desktops and assignments etc.

    If somehow the same server is not available on the same host address, then existing configuration may get corrupted. Administrator should be very cautious while updating host address field.

  • RDP Port: Critical field, controller will check session host server reachability on this port. Modify only when it has been changed on session host server configurations as well.

  • Active: Critical it is already specified in configuration of each type of Session Provider that not selecting Active checkbox will mark the Session Provider as inactive and it will be ignored while fetching Desktop information for the client.

    • Administrator should be cautious while marking any Session Provider as inactive as all associated clients will stop getting Desktops.

    • With adaptive/ least connection load balancing, adding new session host server can put immediate load on newly activated server and hence should be considered carefully as per load analysis.

  • Changing Session Teams: Critical Changing session server team should be done very carefully as it can affect the load balancing of sessions and delivery to end-users. Depending on new session server team, Weight configuration can be shown to be changed or specified.

  • Weight: Critical Weight of a session host server affects the number of sessions to the server directly. Consider changing weight as per capacity of servers.

  • Other configurations:

    • Enable Remote Control: Check or un-check to enable/ disable. Not critical

    • Enable Diagnostics: Not critical but should be enabled as advised from Accops team recommendations.

  • Max Session: Critical, HyWorks will stop giving sessions from server if it has reached Max Session count. A server can be exhausted if Max session count is very high and controller will keep on giving session from it.

  • Assign Application: Checkbox can be used to update application association with session host server

For Managed or Dynamically Deployed Session Host Servers

  • Active: For managed session host servers, only Active field will be modifiable as all other attributes are configured from Desktop Pool wizard or Session Teams page.

Editing Session Host Server

Once changes are identified, administrator can update configured session host server details using following steps:

  1. Select the session provider to be modified

  2. Click on Edit button

  3. Edit Session Provider dialog will be displayed

  4. Update the fields as required and click on Update button.

  5. Changes will be saved, and user's sessions will be given from new session host servers.

Special Case: Marking Session Host Server Inactive

In deployments, sometimes it is required to perform maintenance activities on one or multiple session host servers of a team and thus,administrators require these servers not to be used for providing application or shared hosted desktop by end-users.

Changing Session host server mode to inactive serves this purpose and once session host server is marked inactive, following activities will be stopped:

  1. Health check of session host server reachability, this involves

    1. Check connections on RDP port

    2. Session host agent service

    3. System resource (Hard disk, Memory and CPU usage), HyWorks monitoring service

  2. No new sessions will be given to inactive servers so that maintenance activities can be done

  3. Existing sessions will still be managed but on re-logon and attempt to reconnect will give sessions from Active servers only,

Shared Session Host Status Monitoring

For smooth delivery of applications and shared hosted desktops, session host servers must be up and running. For any specific analysis and troubleshooting details are provided below:

  • Monitoring Server Health: HyWorks Controller gets information of CPU, RAM and Hard-disk utilization from all configured shared session hosts and display it at following location:

  • Server > Session Teams > click on respective session team > details of all servers will be shown.

  • Dashboard > Summary of all added session host server will be shown, suggesting Okay Vs Not okay session host servers.

  • Session host server reachability: HyWorks controller periodically checks session host server reachability for following perspective:

  • Configured RDP port: Unreachable RDP port shows the server is not usable and HyWorks does not give any sessions from that server, The status will be reflected as red color in VDI > Session Servers > Servers section.

  • Session Host Server Agent: As session host server agent is responsible module for mediating all sessions. Un-reachability of it is reflected in Server Session Teams page.

  • HyWorks monitoring service: An important service to share system resource values and communication failure of monitoring service will affect load balancing, Status can be checked on dashboard and VDI > Session Servers > Server Teams page.

Advanced Configurations

  1. Enhanced Shell Tracking for Applications in Shell Mode
  2. Configuration to Run Application with Specific User Credentials
  3. Direct RDP/Console Block
  4. External log Settings
  5. Allow calls from authorized controller(s) only
  6. Session change event scripts support
  7. Pre-Post Scripts for AppLauncher (Linux Only)
  8. How to configure HyShell
  9. Pre-Post Scripts for HyShell

Sections to check for troubleshooting

When application or shared hosted desktop deliveries are functioning normal, monitoring is not needed but, in any case, if users are facing issues in connecting to any provider, then following sections can be checked for server status:

  1. VDI > Session Servers > Servers.

  2. VDI > Session Servers > Server Teams.

  3. Logs > Appropriate warning or error logs are generated when accessed session host is facing any problems or controller is facing problems in connecting to respective session host server.

  4. VDI > Desktops > Shared

  5. Dashboard for high level status of all added session servers.

Advance Configuration

Refer section Advance Configuration For Desktop Provider for provider related settings.